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Jolt to SLFP as MP defects

COLOMBO: Amid suspense over the fate of the 2008 budget presented by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, scheduled to come up for vote in Parliament next week, a senior Parliamentarian of the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) Wijeyadasa Rajapaksa crossed over to the opposition benches on Wednesday.

For several weeks now, particularly ever since the former Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, and the former Minister, Mangala Samaraweera, came together under the platform of the National Congress, there has been speculation of defections from the ruling combine.

The ruling party has a majority of four in the 225-member House, thanks to the support of 23 dissident members of the opposition United National Party and members of several smaller parties.

Mr. Wijeyadasa Rajapaksa is the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) and in his recent reports has indicted two senior members of the government. Both are UNP rebels who joined the government early this year.

“Even assuming the government fails to muster the required numbers to get the budget approved by Parliament, the President does not stand to lose as much as other parties.

“After all Mr. Rajapaksa would continue to be the President and his party has an edge among the majority community in the event of a snap poll thanks to the military successes against the LTTE,” a seasoned political watcher told The Hindu.

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